Day 18: Favorite protagonist.
Why is this question harder than favorite antagonist? Athena from AmbiGaming asks the same thing in her post to the same, so if you’re seeking some clues to the answer, I’d suggest you look there.
For Final Fantasy, it’s a toss up between Cecil Harvey from IV and Celes Chere from VI. Cecil manages to fight and overcome the darkness that threatens to consume him and manages to consume *spoiler* his brother and his best friend *end spoiler* at least for a time, because Cecil is a literal white knight at heart.
Then there’s Celes who went from general to prisoner to rebel to depression/suicidal after she lost everything. I never realized how deep that part of the game was until I was older, but if certain things go awry (even after the world ends), Celes throws herself into the sea.
For non-Final Fantasy Aurora from Child of Light is up there. She’s brave, resourceful, and compassionate, much more mature than her years even in the beginning when she’s a little girl. She’s the best fairy tale heroine I’ve ever come across, doesn’t bleed “damsel in distress” in the least, even throughout all the trials and heartbreaking revelations in Lemuria.
Favorite protagonists are hard to pick. I can’t pinpoint just one like I can with villains. I think it’s because with villains we pick our favorites based on what qualities inspire the most sympathy and connection. In a way we may fear falling as they did, so we might be more forgiving for our favorites because we see a reflection of ourselves. There are many different ways to be a protagonist (not saying there aren’t many different ways to be a villain), and each one we find will have qualities we like and can look up to. This may be why we’re more likely to like different types of protagonists, but generally prefer one type of villain.
Let’s hear your favorite protagonists in the comments!
The Shameful Narcissist Speaks 
Forever and always Lightning Farron – The One Woman Army, Chosen Knight, and Badass Savior 😀
Runner ups:
Aloy from HZD. She’s strong, compassionate, and a sarcastic smartass. She’s actually a lot like Lightning, but shows her emotions much more freely so people understand her. I’m more like Lightning in the sense that I bottle them up behind a mask of indifference, that no one understands at all, haha.
Ezio Auditore from Assassin’s Creed. He grew a lot during his trilogy (all the cool protagonists have trilogies). At first I thought he was just an annoying playboy, but he evolved into a wise Master Assassin. Also, that Italian accent… *fans self*
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I guess the question isn’t hard for everyone hehe. I guess it depends on whether your favorite character is considered a protagonist or an antagonist. Aloy almost topped Lightning at one point. I was quite surprised! If Aloy is more forthcoming with her emotions though, I can see why you’d go back to Lightning since we tend to like what we feel closest to (we’re ALL narcissists :p)
Assassins are just hot to begin with by nature of being assassins, but throw in a sexy accent and you can have a bounty on me *swoons*
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I recently read an interesting post somewhere that Aloy is an INFJ…. 😉
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I think I know the post you’re talking about hehe. I’m so behind in my blog subs D:
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Yeah, me too… I wish I could remember where it was. If I find it I’ll send it along!
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Snake? SNAAAAAAAAAAAKE!
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Omg this reminds me of the Badger Mushroom flash video, like one of the internet’s first memes, and I’m dating myself :p
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I remember this conversation!!! tee hee
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Though I think I need to reexamine it. If you’re favorite character IS a protagonist, it’s much easier :p
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Love the FFIV representation! My favorite protagonist is Link, and not just because he’s from one of my favorite series. I like the idea of a character of legend that is reborn through time. He’s a flexible character, sometimes a kid, other times an adult; a farmhand one second, and a pirate the next. I love that even if it’s usually the same plot between Link, Zelda, and Ganon, there are so many ways to tell it and different settings for him to explore in. Plus he wears green… I like green. 🙂
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I’m a huge fan of the reincarnation aspect of Zelda, too. I think Final Fantasy has a touch of that as well, but that would take more to explain lol. Also just his name, Link, is such an awesome meta. He’s literally linking you, the player, to the story, and the fact that he’s silent makes it even easier to take on his role. Though even though he doesn’t say anything, Link definitely has a personality.
I think I mentioned in my Hyrule Historia review that I think Link, Zelda, and Ganon are irrevocably tied together for all time due to their pieces of the Triforce. Their story is just going to be told over and over and over again.
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Yes! I also love the whole Linking the character to the player. It’s so like Nintendo to think of things in that context. And I believe you’re right about them being tied together. It’s expounded in Skyward Sword too, which I believe gets much more hate than it deserves. It expounds on the Zelda lore!
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I never had a problem with SS probably because I watched it and didn’t play it. Most of the complaints have to do with the controls, which is fair, but that doesn’t diminish the story.
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You’re right, choosing a favorite villain is a bit easier for some reason! I have a few protagonists I could lean towards, but I could easily name more villains I love, haha! 🙂
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I really think it’s because we tend to like villains that we can sympathize/empathize with, and those emotions are really strong and not as common as it is with heroes. Likable heroes come in many different types, but sympathetic villains or villains we have things in common with aren’t as much so. At least that’s my theory hehe.
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I think there is definitely something to your theory! 😉 If you can understand why a villain “is” the way he or she is, it’s much easier to sympathize versus sympathizing with a hero that is “good” just because we are told that they are good.
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Yes! That exactly! With a hero, we don’t need to understand why they’re good. They’re just good because it’s considered the right thing to be, and we can get on board with numerous types of heroes, because there are tons of ways to be good. But with villains, we need to find either some common connection, they have to make some kind of salient point, or they have to be REALLY cool lol.
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